Note:
Land tenure is extremely complex in the Project context. The
traditional clan controlled-system, which secured
subsistence cultivation rights and access to forest produce,
is presently rapidly eroding. The uncertainty of long-term
access to land, or the ownership status, is one of the major
limiting factors when a farmer or a community makes
decisions on land use and on longer-term investments.

More details on the exercise:

The Participatory 3-Dimensional Model (P3DM), as a
participatory approach to land use management was introduced
in the Ukhrul District Community Resource Management Society
(UDCRMS), a project unit of the North Eastern Region
Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP), a joint
project of the Government of India (NEC/Ministry of
DoNER) and the
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
P3DMs were constructed in the villages of Ngainga, Hundung
Godah, Soraphung, Talui and Shirui Kashong range/ cluster,
Ukhrul District.

In order to capture the experience of the P3DM in land use
management in Ukhrul district,
ENRAP together with
NERCORMP conducted a systematization process of
documentation from 28th February ‘til the 6th of March 2006.
The general objective is to answer the basic question on how
P3DM is used in land use management in villages where they
are installed.

The Systematization Documentation Team
(SDT) composed of four persons, visited the villages of
Ngainga and Hundung Godah. Based on the primary and
secondary data/information gathered, the team observed that
overall, the P3DM has brought changes to these communities
among others, deeper understanding of their village
geography, improved village communication and planning
capacity, improved land use management, stronger community
cohesion, and better access to basic services from line
departments. The benefits derived from the P3DM according to
the people, outweigh the cost and effort put into the
construction of the model.

It was further observed that land use,
especially the enforcement of policies to ensure judicious
use of natural resources, was effectively carried out with
the participation of the people at the village in
cooperation with villages at the cluster level together with
the active involvement of concerned government line
departments.

Based on the interaction with the villagers,
the team clearly observed that the P3DM can guide the
communities towards strategic land use. The villagers have
taken a strong sense of ownership of the P3DM. The good
experience on P3DM has also reached other project villages.
They requested the project staff to assist them to construct
a P3DM. There were also non-project villages that requested
the project to provide them with training and help them
construct a P3DM in their villages. They expressed
willingness to shoulder the cost to be incurred in the
construction of the model.

Unless the project takes a more comprehensive
perspective on the value of P3DM in land use management and
continually equip the staff and the community with the
required technical capability to handle P3DM, additional
construction of P3DM will not be fully optimized.

The
challenge now is how to make P3DM a dynamic approach in land
use management. How it can be nurtured to continually
contribute to the development of the villages even after
Project life.

Source:
NERCORMP; published with permission
from NERCORMP (Obtailed on Monday, March 19, 2007 at 6:57
AM)

Model produced in the
framework of the IFAD-supported
North
Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project for
Upland Areas (NERCRMP) by villagers
in the Ngainga, Hundung Godah, Soraphung, Talui and Shirui
Kashong range/ cluster. The project is a joint initiative of
the Government of India (GoI) and the International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The North Eastern Council (NEC) and the Ministry of
Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) represent the
Government of India in the Project set-up. The United
Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) located in
Bangkok is the Cooperating Institution for project
supervision in implementation.

More Case studies on P3DM used in the
context of Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP)